Briefs

July 28, 1989

BALILES SAYS TRADE TRIP LIKELY TO BE HIS LAST

RICHMOND - Gov. Gerald L. Baliles said Thursday he does not have plans to make another overseas trade mission before leaving office in January, but he said the elections this fall had nothing to do with the decision.

Baliles, who has made seven trips abroad to lure industry to Virginia and sell the state's products, also said at a Capitol news conference that he would leave open the possibility of another trip, however.

FLEEING GIRL REPORTS HER OWN KIDNAPPING

BARBOURSVILLE - A New Jersey man was arrested on warrants charging kidnapping and assault after a 17-year-old girl ran into an Orange County general store and told clerks she had been abducted.

Sheriff's deputies arrested Raymond John Dawson, 24, of Marlton, N.J., Wednesday while he was making a telephone call at a service station across from the store.

The girl was incoherent when she came into the store and had to write down what she was trying to tell the two clerks, said Marie Snow, one of the clerks.

The girl, who was not identified because of her age, was kidnapped about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday from a convenience store where she was working in Berlin Township, N.J., about a mile from her home, authorities said.

Poultry flu found

on Virginia farm

HARRISONBURG - Avian flu has been detected in 14,000 broiler-breeder hens in a Page County flock and will be destroyed, a spokesman for the company that owns the birds says.

Meantime, the poultry industry began gearing up Wednesday to make sure the disease has not spread. In 1983 and 1984, an outbreak of the illness, which does not affect humans, caused losses estimated at $31 million.

The affected hens, which are owned by Perdue, will be buried, company spokesman Richard Auletta said.

Workers understand

child-support woes

FREDERICKSBURG - When it comes to job satisfaction, workers at the local office of the Division of Child Support Enforcement are motivated to get results.

"Having been in the situation once upon a time in your life gives you a better understanding," said Carol Baker, operations manager of the Fredericksburg district office that was ranked No. 1 in total collections for the 1988-89 fiscal year among offices of similar size.

"I was in the situation some of these women are in," said Shirley Hinton-Harris, an office technician. "And I feel that if I can just locate one father, it's worth it. I know what it feels like."

Addenda ...

THE STATE Department of Corrections is proposing a $1.1 billion budget that looks to probation and parole as alternatives to overcrowding in prisons and jails.

A MIAMI area man accused of operating the largest clandestine steroid laboratory ever found in the nation was sentenced Thursday to 22 months in federal prison. Many of the drugs went to Virginia, authorities said.